The invention relates generally to textile machinery. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus to be used in association with a textile machine for cleaning the air used in the operation of the machine, for example for cooling or for the transport of fibers, etc. The air cleaning apparatus is intended to remove from the air textile remnants, for example fibers, pieces of threads and the like, and is further equipped for the removal of airborne dust and smaller particles. The cleaning apparatus may include mechanical means for collecting and separating the various textile remnants.
The textile machinery which may use the apparatus of the invention can include any commonly used textile machine, for example a carding machine, a ring-spinning machine, an open-end spinning machine, weaving machines, knitting machines, etc.
It is known to equip spinning machines with fiber removal mechanisms through which passes air that is transported by an associated air transport mechanism. The air passes through obliquely positioned sieves which separate textile remnants such as fibers and threads from the air, and these sieves may be cleaned manually from time to time. It is also known in the art to expel the air transported by the air conveyor in a particular spinning machine into the factory space containing a plurality of machines. However, the known fiber removal apparatus is not equipped to retain airborne dust, for example, which thus is expelled into the factory space. It is a further disadvantage of the known apparatus that the filters require periodic manual cleaning and, because such manual cleaning entails difficulties, it is only performed infrequently. Due to this fact, the pressure drop across the filters in the fiber removal unit varies within appreciable limits and thus changes the volumetric air flow rate of the entire air transport mechanism.